Unions and Gender Pay Equity in Academe: A Study of U.S. Institutions

Abstract

This paper uses 1994-95 faculty salary data from over 1,100 four-year U.S. academic institutions, about one-fourth of them with collective bargaining agreements, to ask if faculty unions make a difference to gender pay equity. Average gender salary differences are negative at every rank and at every category of U.S. institution with or without collective bargaining agreement. Unions may improve gender salary differentials somewhat, particularly at the assistant professor level. There is no evidence that this gain will be lost at higher levels, and mixed evidence that further gains occur for women at the full professor level. The most pervasive and robust consequence of unions is to increase the positive impact that higher proportions of women at senior faculty ranks make on relative salaries at the assistant professor level. However, the influence of these higher-ranked women on gender salary inequalities at the associate and full levels is lower in union schools than nonunion schools. By reducing the flexibility of existing salary structures, collective bargaining apparently reduces the influence of senior women faculty on the salaries of current women faculty members while increasing their attention and influence at entry levels.Gender Equity, Gender Salary Gap, Academic Unions, Faculty Unions, Earnings Differentials,

What kind of faculty are motivated to perform research by the desire for promotion?

“…But if promotion is only a proxy for a salary increase, then a merit pay system based on faculty research performance probably would serve well to enhance faculty research performance. In American experience, where merit-pay system has a long history, the fact that female faculty members are paid less than their male colleagues should serve as a cautionary lesson to Asian countries (Sosin, Rives, & West, 1998;Carlin & Partick, 2000;Becker & Toutkoushian, 2003). In many of the East Asian societies, with their tradition of deference to senior figures and of male dominance, implementing a merit-pay system, which is fair to disadvantaged faculty groups such as young and female faculty is particularly problematic.…”

Faculty Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion: Barriers for Women

“…A further source of dissatisfaction and frustration is that women faculty, on average, earn less than their male colleagues. Salary discrepancies have been found for every category of US academic institution and for institutions with and without collective bargaining agreements (Sosin et al 1998). Discrepancies exist at all professorial ranks, although the largest differences occur at the rank of full professor (West 1995;Winkler et al 1996;Sosin et al 1998).…”

“…Salary discrepancies have been found for every category of US academic institution and for institutions with and without collective bargaining agreements (Sosin et al 1998). Discrepancies exist at all professorial ranks, although the largest differences occur at the rank of full professor (West 1995;Winkler et al 1996;Sosin et al 1998). Even within the distinguished professor rank, where academic honors are based on research achievement, large salary discrepancies are found between men and women (Olsen et al 1995).…”

Does Work Environment Affect Faculty Health Scores?

“…During the past several years, studies have been conducted to evaluate gender differences. Some of this research has focused on salary inequities including studies by Thacker (1995); Balzer and Bourdreau (1996); Bourdreau, Sullivan, Balzer, Ryan, Yonker, Thorsteinson, and Hutchinson (1997); Bellas (1993); Sosin, Rives, and West (1998); Burke, Duncan, Krall, and Spencer (2005); Toumanoff (2005); Porter, Toutkoushian, and Moore (2008); Barbezat and Hughes (2005); Travis, Gross, and Johnson (2009). Others have presented methods to help correct for gender differences in salary including work by Oaxaca and Ransom (2002), Weistroffer, Spinelli, Canavos, and Fuhs (2010), and Haney and Forkenbrock (2006).…”